Who adds nothing to their tank?

[MedcinMn]

My last reef tank was a 125 and I was given information to dose with everything from iodine, strontium, Kalk, molybdenum, phytoplankton etc. So I did. The tank did ok, but after a few years I had a crash. I've read so many times on this forum that dosing isn't necessary, so I wanted to see who actually adds nothing, other than water changes and feeding fish to their tank.

My current setup is a 24 AP, have had fish, inverts and corals for just over 2 months and I've added absoulutely nothing other than feeding the fish. Everything seems happy, but I wonder if I can keep this up without anything bad happening. I change 3 gals every week, my parms stay good, with the exception of nitrates being barely detectable.

Corals are zoas, mushrooms, misc. other polyps, plate coral and a clam.

 

[surfnvb7]

by any chance, did a LFS tell you this?? or anyone in the business of selling supplements?

my best reef tank was a 20g, no skimmer, small HOB fuge, never added anything except baking soda to keep up the alkalinity (i had some sps), and some calcium every now and then. absolute best results i've ever had so far.

 

[theop]

In general, you shouldn't be adding anything you can't test for.

It is often necessary to add some type of buffer-type additive to keep pH and alkalinity stable. Also, low calcium can be an issue when you are keeping significant amounts of stony corals. Using kalkwasser, for example, can both keep calcium stable and prevent pH from dropping.

Since you are testing your water parameters periodically, you'll know if anything gets out of whack.

As for phytoplankton or zooplankton, this is feeding and not really an additive. I definately noticed faster coral growth when I started feeding them.

 

[MedcinMn]

I got the information from both my LFS as well as internet information (including reef central). I'm certainly no expert, so I try and research on my own, and weed out the mis-information.

 

[Agu]

I drip kalk as makeup water and do waterchanges. Works for me....

 

[gfk]

i only do water changes and ive had a healthy tank for over a year (20H)

 

[Nickeleye]

I don't add anything. I've been mixing my own instant ocean salt for water changes and so I'm only adding whatever suppliments are in the salt already. I've got a 12g nanocube. Everything's lookin' great. In fact, everything's looking better than ever since the waterchanges with instant ocean. 2 gallons a week.

 

[saltyESQ]

24g AP and I only do 5g weekly water changes.

 

[Mark426]

I just add water.

 

[Carl_in_Florida]

I tried dosing. Almost killed everything. Now I just add water and food.

 

[chocolateblnt]

Seachem. Start with Reef Salt then I add Reef Buffer & Reef Advantage Calcium ... these 3 take care of pH, alk, calcium, magnesium, & strontium.

 

[duec22]

I never added anything while I had only LPS, weekly water changes was good enough. Now that I've gone to mostly SPS I add Randy's three part.

 

[lilprincess]

Reef crystals dosed w/ calcium + buffer

 

[Pico Keeper]

I used to dose B-Ionic on my 5.5, but even with only 2 drops per day my calc would be in the very high 400s. So I stopped. Havent really noticed anything.

You dont really need to dose anything on nanos, just do water changes. Bigger tanks dont get big and often water changes, so you gotta dose stuff that gets used up... iodine, calcium, essential aminos, plankton, etc etc.

 

[Tate]

I never dose anything. I also can't get corraline to grow. I'm thinking about dosing kalk to see if that does the trick.

 

[bamsickle]

Because of the water softener and RO units on the house, I use Kent superbuffer in my top off water whenever the test says I need it for Ph and alk. I pulled out the container to get the name of it and happened to check the ingredients cause I see a lot of people use baking soda for the same purpose. Guess I'll save myself a bunch of $$ when this runs out . Other than that, just water changes.

B

 

[DarkXerox]

Calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and magnesium chloride to bump up levels as needed.

Calcium hyroxide(kalk) in makeup water

 

[ksp75]

I have a 20 gallon and I don't add anything. It has been up and running for three years now and all I do is a 50% W/C once a month.

 

[randt122]

WC only with occasional feeding.